eBay frock horror for retailers

Online auction site eBay will launch a fashion initiative today enabling local brands to sell their wares online, creating another headache for struggling Australian retailers.

Twenty-eight local fashion labels including Seduce, Witchery, Seafolly, Alannah Hill, Herringbone and Supré – and some international brands including British department store House of Fraser and The Savile Row Company – will be sold through a section of the eBay site that has been branded a “Fashion Gallery".

eBay Australia’s head of fashion, Jo Hicks, said while most of the brands available on the site had their own transactional websites, they would use eBay to tap into a larger audience. Ms Hicks said more than half the brands on the eBay Fashion Gallery would offer free shipping, and new stock and sale items would be available.

“We get over 6 million unique visitors and three out of five of Australia’s entire online shopping population coming to eBay each month," Ms Hicks said.

“As we know fashion retail is not doing that well and [Australian Bureau of Statistics] stats in August showed us that the clothing category had declined by 1.4 per cent. What we are seeing on eBay is that fashion is growing 24 per cent, year on year."

To mark the launch of its Fashion Gallery, eBay is painting an unattractive picture of traditional retailing in Australia. It has published research claiming Australians spend $14.1 billion each year on the “act of shopping" including at least $32 on parking or public transport, lunch and refreshments – or approximately $1408.60 annually, before clothes have even been purchased.

The research found 58 per cent of Australian consumers said they are looking to do more online fashion shopping in the next six months.

Despite initially being set up as a second-hand online auction site, 79 per cent of all fashion items such as clothes, shoes and accessories sold on eBay today are new. Ms Hicks said eBay was “an online expert" and that the new fashion initiative would enable local brands to adopt an online strategy by piggybacking on eBay’s market share. “We invest in infrastructure and technology so that our retail partners don’t have to," Ms Hicks said.

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The chief executive of Witchery Holdings, Ian Nairn, said selling the Witchery and Mimco brands through the eBay site as well as the stores’ own sites would increase the number of overall consumers buying those brands. Witchery charges $9.95 for shipping and offers free shipping to shoppers who spend over $100.

Ms Hicks said it was up to individual labels whether they allowed shipping beyond Australia but said enabling shipping worldwide would open brands up to 93 million eBay consumers.

Last month British fashion site ASOS launched an Australian-only website. Asos.com.au enables free local shipping and means returns do not have to be sent back to the UK, reducing time and decreasing the risk of damaged goods. ASOS has also recently launched ASOS Marketplace, a component of its site similar to eBay, which allows “anyone, anywhere" to sell fashion “to anyone, anywhere" – from independent labels, emerging designers and vintage sellers.

Ms Hicks said eBay was not in direct competition with ASOS. “We support retailers bringing greater competition to the market and growing Australian online retail," she said, adding eBay encouraged retailers to adopt a multi-channel approach to selling.

Another international fashion site favoured most by Australians, TopShop, will open a store in Australia in December.